


Not Just Any Kiss

by SailorSol



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Binding Contracts, F/M, Tragedy, True Love Isn't That Easy, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 04:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1844713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorSol/pseuds/SailorSol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone should have told her that True Love takes more than mutual attraction and a general fondness for each others’ company.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Just Any Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to wildforce71 for the beta. <3 and confetti.

_“Before the sun sets on the third day, you’ve got to get dear old Princie to fall in love with you. That is, he’s got to kiss you. Not just any kiss; the kiss of True Love. If he does kiss you before the sun sets on the third day, you will remain human permanently. But, if he doesn’t, you’ll turn back into a mermaid. You belong to me.”_

* * *

She kisses him in a blue lagoon, with fireflies swirling around them and fish leaping out of the water as the birds sing a love song conducted by Sebastian.

The kiss is everything her sisters said it would be; sweet and gentle, somewhat timid, and far too short.

Eric blushes and stammers an apology.

Ariel opens her mouth to tell him she didn’t mind, but words refuse to form.

* * *

She finds her friends waiting for her in the cove where she first found her legs. Scuttle is offering congratulations and Sebastian is muttering about what to tell her father. Ariel is trying to keep the smile on her face, but when Flounder speaks, the others fall silent.

“What’s wrong?”

She shakes her head and sits in the sand, hugging her legs to her chest. She’s glad it’s dark so they can’t see her tears.

“Say something, Ariel,” Sebastian says.

She chokes on a silent sob and buries her face. Maybe she’s wrong; maybe the kiss worked, and she’d just never be able to speak ever again. She digs her toes into the sand, wondering if this was worth the cost.

* * *

She doesn’t sleep. When the sun rises in the morning, she wanders through the castle until Grimsby finds her and herds her to the dining room. Eric offers her a tentative smile from across the table.

“I thought we could go out on one of my ships today,” he says. “Have you ever been sailing?”

She smiles and shakes her head. Even if she could speak, she isn’t sure she would be able to explain to him about her life in the sea. He only knew of the crags and peaks of the waves and could likely fathom the deeps as well as she could what living on land would be like.

Eric’s view drifts past her to look out the windows towards the water. “If the weather holds,” he adds with a small frown.

Ariel smiles again, shaking her head in sad amusement; her father will keep the seas calm for them, regardless of how angry King Triton might be with his youngest daughter. She finishes her breakfast and rises, eager to be out on the water with the man she loves.

Maybe the kiss was enough, after all.

* * *

The salt air sings in her blood as the wind whips her hair around her face. The dolphins laugh their joy as they race along in front of Eric’s ship. Ariel wishes she could be in the water next to them, the feel of her own powerful tail pushing her forward, up and out to break the surface into the sunlight.

Eric approaches and wraps an arm around her waist, shattering the illusion she had created for herself. He is warm and smells of sweat but the kiss he presses to her cheek is gentle. “You’re beautiful,” he tells her.

She wishes she could tell him of the curse. The light is growing long as the sun dips towards the horizon, and three days with this man have been all that she imagined and more. She clings to him and clings to the illusion that they can stay like this, grow old together in days filled with sunlight and happiness.

* * *

The wind shifts. She hears the laughter first, low and deep and throaty, and then Eric is pushing her behind him as Ursula makes her way across the deck of the ship.

“Well isn’t this a charming sight,” the sea witch says, tapping her chin in mock fascination. Ariel wants to stay behind Eric, but she knows she can’t; she signed a contract. She puts a gentle hand on his shoulder, and steps around him.

“Ariel, what—”

“Didn’t she tell you?” Ursula asks, and then laughs again. “Oh, of course not. Silly me. You see, Ariel belongs to _me_.”

The last word is dark and tugs at something inside Ariel’s soul and the confused expression on Eric’s face is almost too much to bear. She meets his eyes, brushes her fingers down her cheeks, and kisses him, putting all of her love into it that she can muster.

But the sun has already set, and she feels legs twisting back into fins, and Eric’s eyes go wide as he realizes just what she truly is. She can’t meet his eyes any longer, hiding her tears behind her hair.

“I don’t understand,” Eric says, sounding hurt and betrayed and maybe a little angry. Ursula is ignoring him, using one tentacle to tip Ariel’s chin up so she has no choice but to meet the witch’s gaze.

“Were you really so foolish, child, to think that True Love is something that can happen in three days?” Ursula asks, and her tone is almost, almost gentle, like she regretted having to shatter all of Ariel’s illusions. But then Ursula smirks and looks towards Eric. “Our little mermaid defied her father and fell in love with a human,” she explains. “ _You_. And when Daddy Dearest forbid her from ever returning to the surface, she came to me and made a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” Eric asks, a note of challenge in his voice.

“A binding one,” Ursula continues. “She had three days to make you fall in love with her, and if she failed, well.”

“But I do love her!” Eric protests, and Ariel finally looks up towards him again. He looks desperate and maybe a little afraid, but he hasn’t backed down, and hope swells in Ariel’s heart.

“ _True_ Love, dear princie,” Ursula coos. “The kind wrought from years of shared experiences, of hardships and storms weathered. The child was a fool if she truly believed I would let her get away so easily.”

Eric moves to step forward, but a tentacle wraps its way around Ariel’s neck and he freezes, eyes widening in fear. “I’ll give you anything you ask, if you leave her alone,” Eric says.

Ursula throws back her head and laughs. “I have bigger fish to catch than you,” she says, and Ariel notices the first stirrings of a storm. Sebastian must have gone to her father, and Ariel had swam right into the witch’s trap.

She wants to tell Eric to flee, to beg Ursula to spare his life, but her voice is still trapped in the shell around the witch’s neck, and a streak of lightning arcs down from the sky to slam into the mast, setting wood and cloth aflame. In the confusion, Ursula drags Ariel back into the sea.

She thinks of puppet shows and blue lagoons and shattered statues as the ship above them burns and the net the witch has woven ensnares her father and thinks, love can never be worth any of this.


End file.
